Looking for Southern California’s political stars of the future: Opinion

Say you want a lawmaker to support your point of view. If you wait to state your case until the office holder is voting on a specific bill, it might be too late. Better to secure the politician’s commitment early — very early, by helping him or her get elected in the first place.

That’s the strategy of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based group founded in 2009 by a pair of former MoveOn organizers seeking longer-term approaches to winning political friends and influencing powerful people.

As co-founder Adam Green explained over a vegetarian sandwich at a deli in Sherman Oaks one day this week, PCCC is always on the lookout for promising young politicians (progressive ones) to get behind.

Which prompts the question: Who are the most promising young politicians (of any ideology) in Southern California? If you wanted to back an up-and-comer who could fight the good fight — yours — for years to come in the state Legislature or Congress, or even the governor’s office or White House, whom would you pick?

One hates to encourage the labeling of political “rising stars.” That term seems to get affixed to everybody with a full head of hair who ever leads in a campaign poll and isn’t under indictment. Still, it’s fun to speculate on which of our region’s elected officials and wannabe elected officials have the brightest futures.

And for people like Adam Green of the PCCC, it’s more than fun. It’s a key to putting in place public officials who will push their organization’s agenda.

Green says Democrats are already “thinking beyond Obama,” with whom many liberals are impatient. Green also isn’t thrilled with Jerry Brown, considering how the California governor has tried to moderate the agenda of the state Legislature’s Democratic supermajority.

So his group is scouting for the next generation of political stars. Sounds like a smart strategy for all sides.

Who are the next generation of political stars in Southern California? Readers, we’d like to hear your ideas.